Which sentence has a misplaced adjective phrase?
A.
The dog chewed its bone with soft brown fur.
B.
The house on the left was finished six months ago.
C.
The cactus on the windowsill should be left alone.
D.
The clothes in the basket need to be washed
Does the bone have soft, brown fur?
A. Does the dog have brown fur or does the bone have brown fur?
To determine which sentence has a misplaced adjective phrase, we need to understand what an adjective phrase is and how it should be structured within a sentence.
An adjective phrase is a group of words that functions as an adjective to describe or modify a noun. It usually consists of an adjective along with any additional words that support or further describe the adjective. Adjective phrases can appear before or after the noun they modify.
Let's analyze each sentence to identify any misplaced adjective phrases:
A. "The dog chewed its bone with soft brown fur."
In this sentence, the adjective phrase "with soft brown fur" describes the noun "bone." It is correctly placed after the noun it modifies, so there is no misplaced adjective phrase here.
B. "The house on the left was finished six months ago."
In this sentence, there is no adjective phrase. The phrase "on the left" functions as a prepositional phrase and not an adjective phrase.
C. "The cactus on the windowsill should be left alone."
Similar to the previous sentence, the phrase "on the windowsill" is a prepositional phrase, not an adjective phrase. Therefore, there is no misplaced adjective phrase here.
D. "The clothes in the basket need to be washed."
Once again, there is no adjective phrase in this sentence. The phrase "in the basket" is also a prepositional phrase and does not function as an adjective phrase.
Based on our analysis, none of the given sentences have a misplaced adjective phrase.